N.W.A.

Compton’s Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, DJ Yella, and Arabian Prince were the braintrust behind the iconic N.W.A. (which stood for Niggaz Wit Attitudes). The group spoke truth to power about police brutality, racial profiling, and growing up on the city’s violent streets. Their 1988 debut studio album, Straight Outta Compton, included the incendiary single “Fuck Tha Police,” and got them short-listed by law enforcement and conservative groups for its explicit lyrics and angry message. After Arabian Prince left in 1988 followed by Ice Cube in 1989, the group released their second album, Niggaz4Life, in 1991; it became the first gangsta rap album to hit No. 1 on Billboard’s 200 chart. Their story was told in the 2015 biopic Straight Outta Compton and in 2016, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

With N.W.A’s biopic upon us, Eric Harvey explains how the gangsta rap originators’ work once acted as necessary counterprogramming to reality shows like “COPS” and how their mastery of media relates to our current moment of racialized police brutality.